Prized 1794 violin a few C-notes closer to purchase

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Now he and the local musical community have added a new twist to that story.

Heller, a 17-year-old senior at Danbury High School, will study classical violin at the Boston Conservatory in the fall. Needing an instrument that could carry him to his new career, he went to the shop of Philip Perrett in Katonah, N.Y., and fell in love with a 1794 violin made in London by Thomas Cahusac.

Even at a discount, the violin and its bow together cost $10,000 -- far more than his family, all musicians, could afford.

But Judith Cook Tucker -- a local musicologist, music publisher and president of the Connecticut Folklife Project -- decided to help Julien by holding a benefit concert to raise money for him to buy the violin.

The concert featured Julien playing with his teacher, Eric Lewis of the Manhattan String Quartet; composer and pianist Howard Rovics of Bethel; folk musician Lisa Furman; jazz musician Piper Cole; and the Heller Family Hurdy-Gurdy Band.

The concert raised between $7,000 and $8,000.

"I'm totally grateful to everyone," Julien said.

"It was just wonderful," said his father, Donald Heller, who with his wife, Anicet, are hurdy-gurdy virtuosi. "We're still enjoying the afterglow."

Tucker said the event, attended by about 85 people, felt like a family coming together to cheer on a young member.

"Eric Lewis gave this wonderful talk about what it means to mentor a student like Julien -- how it was humanistic, not mechanistic," she said. "I had no expectations with the concert. I would have been happy with raising $1,000. But people were very generous."

The money the concert raised will pay for the violin. The Hellers now have to find an additional $2,000 or so for a vintage bow that will suit the vintage instrument. Perrett has such a bow in his shop.

"If you have a really good violin, you need a really good bow," Julien said. "When you talk about a singer, you talk about the voice box. The bow is the voice box when you play the violin."

"Each violin is different, each bow is different," Donald Heller said. "You have to find a good match."

The Hellers may make a DVD of the concert, which Tucker filmed, and sell it as a way to raise the final $2,000.

"Whatever happens, $2,000 is a lot easier to manage than $10,000," Julien said.

For the story of the 1794 violin made in London?

"I'd like to think the new chapter has just begun," Julien said. "Hopefully, it will be an exciting one. It's had a good start."